Menlo Park Police Department is committed to recruiting qualified individuals who have a passion to serve others in the community. Along with having the compassion for others, an ethical foundation, moral compass, and basic capabilities to be a police officer and employee, candidates should reflect the values and vision of the City of Menlo Park and the police department’s mission. Our goal is to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of our community we serve, while also ensuring high quality candidates are selected through a fair hiring process. Our department has been successful at growing our police officer pool utilizing our explorer and volunteer programs. We also have developed our non-sworn, professional staff positions of parking enforcement and community service officer positions as ways to proactively identify, provide exposure to the law enforcement setting and expand our talent pool. We invest in our current employees and we continue to recruit candidates who possess the values, character traits and capabilities that we are looking for in our employees. The hiring and recruitment selection process for police employees follow the California Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) recruitment and hiring guidelines. We have streamlined the selection process and make it more efficient and user-friendly to applicants; however, being sure to follow POST’s guidelines and not taking shortcuts in bringing on employees.